A study of the propagation of an embedded crack in a composite laminate of finite thickness

In this paper, the mechanism for the propagation of a crack embedded in the central layer of a composite laminate is studied based on energy criteria. As the crack may propagate in the transverse direction or in the tunneling direction, the critical stresses for these two propagations are presented. The theoretical analysis is applied to a fibre-reinforced composite laminate. Critical stresses for the initiation of crack propagation are calculated taking into account the influence of the adjacent ply angle and the crack size. It is found that for the considered typical fibre-reinforced composite laminate, the critical stress for the transverse propagation is less than that for the tunneling propagation. Therefore, transverse cracking is a more possible fracture mode in composite laminates with initial crack-like defects. This finding supports the calculation of the in situ transverse strength based upon the transverse crack propagation.